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It's nothing less than a miracle that anyone survives the ordeal, to do it all again, the following year."
On January 21, 2006, I celebrated my 31st birthday.
What was supposed to be a quiet evening spent with a few friends, turned into a big dinner with 15 of my closest friends and then cocktails with many, many other people. Also, karaoke.
I always think that these things will be more modest than they turn out to be. I am always pleasantly surprised by the magnitude of the affection that my friends give me. I catch myself drifting off to the side to watch these good, good people gather and interract and treat me with kindness and generosity.
I am very fortunate to have them in my life.
Here's a recap of the day that I wrote to a friend of mine, "Priss". I've changed the names to protect the litigious.
I had a great birthday.
I started the day with by adjudicating an Incubator audition at the Playground. (We do them every two months, and from them, a new improv team is created.) The last two that I've been to were stressful times for me. A guy we call GRADE A ASSHOLE was there and while he didn't do or say anything particularly at me, I was uncomfortable being around him for 6 hours on an otherwise pleasant Saturday morning.
This time, however, he wasn't there. And I was quietly informed that he wouldn't be coming back. As a concession to my feelings, which I hadn't taken the time to express. (I didn't feel that it was my place to set a "him or me" type ultimatum. The point of the day is for the auditionees experience. I was sucking it up for them.)
With A-HOLE gone, the mood was generally lighter and we all laughed a lot more than we usually do. There also wasn't a sense of cliques being there, with people talking to either me or him, but never both. This time, everyone chatted with each other and got along famously and the whole process was much easier on us all. We had a very good time.
And, we found 20 people to callback tonight. So it was a productive day, as well.
After that, I went home and changed for the evening. I wore a suit and tie, just to feel a little more formal, a little more attractive for the evening.
I met 15 of my closest friends for dinner and we chatted over a nice meal at Leona's, one of my favorite restaurants. (We played a joke on a friend of mine and had them sing "Happy Birthday" to him and not me. He was adament that the reservation be in his name, because the manager of that restaurant was a friend of his. We bribed the waitress to have the staff come out and sing to him instead. He got red-faced and gave me the finger and laughed about it, while they sang RIGHT in his face. A very fun time!)
After that, we headed to a local bar, Gio's, for cocktails and karaoke. The bar was pretty empty, until we got there. We took over the largest congregation of tables in the joint and proceeded to sing silly karaoke songs all night long. I liked how my friends all earnestly sang their songs. No ironic song choices for us. I heard everything from "Sister Christian" to "Time in a Bottle" and everything in between. I got pimped into singing "Hit me baby one more time" and attacked it like it was trying to rob me. I beat that song into submission. Afterwards, a friend said that it was like hearing a soulful rendition sung by "Shatner, after a few drinks." I took that as a compliment.
We closed the bar down and then I went to a friends house where I fell happily asleep at their dinner table, while they played dice games around me. Eventually a friend loaded me into his truck, took me home and I enjoyed a nice, long sleep. Sunday was for rest and recovery. (Because of a friends smart choice to use Chasers at the bar, I was hangover free on Sunday and indeed, could not even feel the damage done to my kidneys.)
Me, on the right. Edited to obscure some of my identity.
Behind me, one of my best friends, "Chip". To his left, some guy.
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